Snippets North Star Metric
North Star Metric
North Star metric of Snippets is: Number of Snippets
Why?
Snippets can be used in a variety of ways from documentation, sharing scripts or even embedded externally. These individual actions all contribute value, but that value is only available with snippets existing.
- Number of (unique) Views: The number of views snippets receive is a potential way to measure the value of snippets. However, some snippets may be popular and receive a significant number of views, but popularity isn't a measure of the value.
- Number of Embedded Snippets: This is an important metric to understand the value of embedding snippets, but doesn't convey the overall value of snippets to users.
- Number of Stars/Forks: These are vanity for individual snippets, but don't convey value of Snippets as a feature.
Risks
There are at least two main risks with the number of snippets:
- This metric has historically been challenging to understand as Snippets have been a large source of Spam which can create inflated and then deflated counts across the board.
- Number of snippets doesn't properly convey value delivered from snippets other than signaling high usage of the snippets feature which implies value.
Additional Details
Edited by Kai Armstrong